tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88500590617142426342017-08-13T12:38:14.731+01:00The Book Challengezalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.comBlogger237125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-33400865409497881632017-08-12T12:00:00.003+01:002017-08-12T12:01:22.992+01:00Book 222 - Magician by Raymond E Feist<span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Book - Magician</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Un54WcuRT9s/WY7fwxsBCHI/AAAAAAAAAkw/0utefn7insEkgZgxKsTfaU8VFZWs3HcpgCLcBGAs/s1600/Cover%2B-%2BMagician%2B-%2BRaymond%2BE%2BFeist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="164" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Un54WcuRT9s/WY7fwxsBCHI/AAAAAAAAAkw/0utefn7insEkgZgxKsTfaU8VFZWs3HcpgCLcBGAs/s200/Cover%2B-%2BMagician%2B-%2BRaymond%2BE%2BFeist.jpg" width="145" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Author - Raymond E Feist</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Year - 1983</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Pages - 681 (Author's Preferred Edition)</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Genre - Fantasy</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Series - The Riftwar Saga</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Recommended by Adam Newell</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">For us teachers, it is the summer holidays, and that means three things can happen - catch up on television, catch up with friends and catch up on reading. This feels like a nice situation where all of them combine.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Having spent years waiting for the next in the <a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/book-17-game-of-thrones.html"><i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i></a> series by George R R Martin to be released, I finally caved and decided I'd rather not be spoiled and would watch the TV series. &nbsp;These are the greatest books ever and I cannot recommend them highly enough, but also, do watch the TV series. &nbsp;It is a fantastic adaptation of the books.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">As I was piling through them, my housemate from university, Adam, got in touch. &nbsp;I have Adam to thank for getting me into this series of books as he lent me <i>A Game of Thrones</i> when we first got to uni. &nbsp;It got me to thinking about the only book that he held in higher esteem, and despite itching to reread (for the sixth time) Martin's books, I thought I should revisit this classic.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">And very glad I was that I did. &nbsp;This book has all of the hallmarks of the greatest of high fantasy - battles, wars, dragons, elves, dwarves - and characters that transport you. &nbsp;Set in the world of Midkemia, we follow the magician's apprentice, Pug, as their world is invaded by warriors from the world of Kelewan. &nbsp;With a shifting viewpoint, we discover what is happening on both worlds and the book covers years and years of the war, giving it a scale that you rarely see in just one book.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Whilst by no means the first fantasy book of this scale and influence (I think Tolkien&nbsp;has that wrapped up, even if there are technically earlier) it still predates many of the books that we see as classics of the genre, and I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that <i>Magician </i>is an influence on many of them. &nbsp;It is also the start of a whole new world of stories from this universe. &nbsp;I read most of them about fifteen years ago, but Feist has released many more since. &nbsp;I think that this warrants a series reread!</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">In a moment of great timing as well, I am quite hungover this morning from meeting up with Adam and his fiancee (together all the way through from university!) Alex last night, and awoke to finish the book off. &nbsp;Adam deserves credit for leading me in the right direction on so many fantasy novels, and it was a genuine treat to see them again after many years. &nbsp;Thank you!</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">10/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-4028093053676258482017-04-20T23:47:00.003+01:002017-04-20T23:47:25.330+01:00Book 221 - Titan Sinking by James Dixon<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5p-hHdqm8xI/WPk25lsOc8I/AAAAAAAAAkg/iJKEkkUL1MQr2VaukhhyrnZLPPFuEMa7ACLcB/s1600/Cover%2B-%2BTitan%2BSinking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5p-hHdqm8xI/WPk25lsOc8I/AAAAAAAAAkg/iJKEkkUL1MQr2VaukhhyrnZLPPFuEMa7ACLcB/s200/Cover%2B-%2BTitan%2BSinking.jpg" width="128" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Book - Titan Sinking</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Author - James Dixon</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Year - 2014</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Genre - Non-Fiction (Wrestling)</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Pages - 221</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Before I start talking wrestling - because I know that it is not necessarily the kind of thing that dozens of you who read this (if I manage to reach dozens!) are particularly interested in - I should say that I have started numbering books differently. &nbsp;I have added up all of the books that I have reveiwed her on my little blog and this is number 221. &nbsp;So that is how I shall do it from now on.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">On to the important thing of talking rasslin! &nbsp;<i>Titan Sinking</i>&nbsp;documents the intricacies of 1995 in the then WWF. &nbsp;Wrestling fans of the time will know that as an annus horribilus for the company. &nbsp;Vince McMahon was fresh off of a grand jury trial suggesting that he was supplying steroids to his workers, and as a result he got rid of many of the huge muscle bound stars that were in the fed at the time. &nbsp;This left a massive gap, and we who are inclined to look back fondly tend to remember the likes of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels coming to the forefront and becoming stars. &nbsp;We try and push back the fact that this year also saw the debuts of Duke Droese, the wrestling binman, TJ Hopper, the wrestling plumber, and Mantaur, a wrestling bull. &nbsp;No, really. &nbsp;This is the period in time that when I am teased for liking to watch two half naked men pretend to fight each other, I can look back and think that at least I am not watching an evil dentist fight a clown.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">This makes it an interesting period to look at, so I eagerly bought this and tucked straight in. &nbsp;At first, I was a little underwhelmed. &nbsp;Dixon has a tendency to write as though he was there - mentions of Vince sighing and putting his head back in his chair for instance - that I don't think work very well in a historical look at things. &nbsp;However, it didn't take long for me to change my tune. &nbsp;This book is incredibly well researched, and presented in an engaging and entertaining way. &nbsp;There is somewhat of an over reliance on two or three sources - Jim Cornette and Bob Holly seem to have something to say about everything - but I will genuinely forgive this for the fact that it shows that it has been researched! &nbsp;The temptation to include unfounded gossip must be great, but when that happens, Dixon is clear that this is what it is. &nbsp;His seven or eight pages on the Randy Savage and Vince's daughter Stephanie rumours are wonderfully written and the best thing that I have seen on that possible event.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What I find interesting about this book aside from the wrestling, is that I do believe that it is self published. &nbsp;I don't know too much about how this works, but it seems that with my Amazon Prime membership, I may be able to read this book - and his two follow up books - for free. &nbsp;But I feel this would be taking money away from someone who is doing a great thing and putting a dream out there. &nbsp;As a result, I am reluctant to do so, and although they are pretty expensive, I would like to save a little and get them in paper form I think. &nbsp;If anyone knows anything different to this on how it works, then let me know as I would be very interested to find out more.</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">9/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-77663122657940011742017-04-13T00:22:00.000+01:002017-04-13T00:22:27.696+01:00American Gods - Neil Gaiman<span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Book - American Gods</span><br /><div><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1yW9YD1e-Dc/WO62NOSnKvI/AAAAAAAAAkM/hwxGycuyCRIOjvkkpl_6qczN7wreRbe-wCLcB/s1600/Cover%2B-%2BAmerican%2BGods%2B-%2BNeil%2BGaiman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1yW9YD1e-Dc/WO62NOSnKvI/AAAAAAAAAkM/hwxGycuyCRIOjvkkpl_6qczN7wreRbe-wCLcB/s200/Cover%2B-%2BAmerican%2BGods%2B-%2BNeil%2BGaiman.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Author - Neil Gaiman</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Year - 2001</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Genre - Fantasy</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Pages - 635</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Bought for me by Alex Campbell</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Three years. &nbsp;Three years since I reviewed a book on here. &nbsp;And the really shameful thing is that in that time, I have hardly read anything! &nbsp;Some plays and books for work, but not really very much in the way of things for myself. &nbsp;That is, quite frankly, a little embarrassing.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">However, I was bought this book for my birthday last week with the recommendation to read it before the TV series starts at the end of the month. &nbsp;In my haste to avoid spoilers at all costs, and to make sure I read the book before I watch anything on screen, I thought I had best give it a go.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><i>American Gods</i>&nbsp;has a fantastic premise. &nbsp;What if all of the gods that had ever existed actually did exist? &nbsp;And what if they continued to exist to this day? &nbsp;What if the only thing that meant a god could exist was someones continued belief in them? &nbsp;What new gods would we be seeing formed before our eyes as we start to worship new things?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">Shadow is a prisoner who starts to find out the answers to these questions. &nbsp;Along with the premise, which is very much up my alley, Shadow is one of the best things about this book. &nbsp;He is a strong, silent type who comes across as highly relatable, despite being nothing like me, or probably you. &nbsp;He is the perfect connector between reader and story and goes a long way towards making the book a success.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">An interesting writing approach also comes in the way that Gaiman peppers the book with sub stories. &nbsp;We will occasionally&nbsp;take a small break from the main story to look at a smaller one in another part of America, or another time zone completely. &nbsp;Most of these have some relevance&nbsp;to the main story. &nbsp;Others just add depth and colour. &nbsp;I would often find this a little frustrating, but they are wonderfully written and one in the middle in particular - spanning an impressive eighteen pages - could work as its own novella.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">I urge anyone to read the book before they watch the film or TV version, and this is a must here. &nbsp;It is a brilliant read that I have gotten through in a few days, and considering I have been on quite the reading hiatus, that is an impressive feat. &nbsp;The trailer for the show looks good (and stars Ricky Whittle as Shadow, who, despite not being how I pictured him in my mind, had already struck me as the perfect choice), but nothing compares to reading first.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif;">10/10</span></div>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-29795093579590650992014-06-07T12:54:00.001+01:002014-06-07T12:54:57.693+01:00Book 13 - Geek Girl<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lzc9k3eN8K8/UeU35nADa7I/AAAAAAAAACw/1Cs-chHmcOQ/s1600/Cover+-+Geek+Girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #6699cc; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lzc9k3eN8K8/UeU35nADa7I/AAAAAAAAACw/1Cs-chHmcOQ/s200/Cover+-+Geek+Girl.jpg" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="130" /></a><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(note: &nbsp;this is a review taken from the challenge that I undertook with my year seven class in 2013. &nbsp;See&nbsp;<a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/some-links-from-side-project.html">here</a>&nbsp;for my explanation of it)</span></i><br /><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Book - Geek Girl</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Author - Holly Smale</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Year - 2013</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Genre - Teen Fiction</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Pages - 356</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">This book was recommended to me by Rachel.&nbsp; I had seen it displayed quite prominently in several bookshops over the past few months, and so knew that it would be a popular book amongst teens at the moment.&nbsp; I cannot say that it is the kind of thing that I would usually read, and - if I am entirely honest - it struck me as a 'girls' book.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">The book focuses on Harriet, a self confessed geek, who is dragged along to a fashion fair by her friend Nat, who wants more than anything in the world to be a model.&nbsp; However, things don't go entirely to plan when it is not Nat who is spotted by the agents, but instead Harriet herself.&nbsp; For someone who has always professed to hate fashion, how will she cope with the idea that she could be a model?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">As I mentioned before, I approached this with the idea that it was a book for girls.&nbsp; Whilst there is no denying that this is the prime target of&nbsp;</span></span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Geek Girl</em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">, I have to say that I absolutely loved it.&nbsp; Smale is a very talented writer who has created such amazing and&nbsp;likeable&nbsp;characters that it is incredibly easy to&nbsp;become fully absorbed in her world.&nbsp; The storyline is not something that holds any interest to me, but through great writing and wonderful characterisation, I was so hooked that I read the whole book in one sitting.</span></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">If you are a teenage girl, then this is the book for you.&nbsp; However, if you are not then don't discount it.&nbsp; Reading books that you never usually would and loving them is exactly the kind of thing that makes this challenge worthwhile.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">10/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-69885042694384370512014-06-07T12:52:00.003+01:002014-06-07T12:52:48.734+01:00Book 12 - Twelve Minutes to Midnight<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gmN3ee2S-R4/U5L805uRC3I/AAAAAAAAAjE/wSvPS-EboQc/s1600/Cover+-+Twelve+Minutes+to+Midnight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gmN3ee2S-R4/U5L805uRC3I/AAAAAAAAAjE/wSvPS-EboQc/s1600/Cover+-+Twelve+Minutes+to+Midnight.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(note: &nbsp;this is a review taken from the challenge that I undertook with my year seven class in 2013. &nbsp;See&nbsp;<a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/some-links-from-side-project.html">here</a>&nbsp;for my explanation of it)</span></i><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Book - Twelve Minutes to Midnight</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Author - Christopher Edge</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Year - 2012</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Genre - Fantasy</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Pages - 256</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">This book was recommended to me by Paige.&nbsp; She decided after only a few pages that she was not very impressed by it, so I shall be interested to see if my opinions are different, or if her opinions&nbsp;change as she finishes it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">It is the late nineteenth century and Penny has become one of the most successful writers in London.&nbsp; This is despite&nbsp;her being only thirteen years old.&nbsp; Despite writing under a pseudonym, she quickly becomes caught up in mystery when all of the inmates at Bedlam Asylum start to write unusual things at exactly twelve minutes to midnight each night.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">When I started the book, I was ready to agree with Paige.&nbsp; To start with I am not sure that it is the most interesting thing I have read recently.&nbsp; However, once I got past the slightly gothic nature of the beginning, I found myself getting more and more into the plot of the book.&nbsp; The slightly magical nature&nbsp;of much of it was interesting, and I think the main point behind the book was excellent.&nbsp; However, I did want things to develop far more than they did.&nbsp; Everything seemed to come to&nbsp;a close a little to quickly,&nbsp;when I&nbsp;could see the potential for it to carry on for further than just this book.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">As I understand it, this is the first part of a series.&nbsp; I would be interested to see how Edge develops his characters, and despite being a little disappointed with some elements of this book, I would still give the next one a go.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">7/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-57396803367880871242014-06-07T12:49:00.003+01:002014-06-07T14:58:19.865+01:00Book 11 - Love Lessons<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i6K0vOoq0Xo/UeUQ09_O5LI/AAAAAAAAACU/QZawaxRZFiI/s1600/Cover+-+Love+Lessons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #6699cc; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i6K0vOoq0Xo/UeUQ09_O5LI/AAAAAAAAACU/QZawaxRZFiI/s200/Cover+-+Love+Lessons.jpg" height="200" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="129" /></a><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(note: &nbsp;this is a review taken from the challenge that I undertook with my year seven class in 2013. &nbsp;See&nbsp;<a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/some-links-from-side-project.html">here</a>&nbsp;for my explanation of it. &nbsp;This one has a proper edit at the end as well.)</span></i><br /><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Book - Love Lessons</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Author - Jacqueline Wilson</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Year - 2007</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Genre - Romance</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Pages - 264</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">This book was the recommendation of Sophie.&nbsp; I am aware of Jacqueline Wilson - she was my little sister's favourite author as she was growing up, and as a result there were loads of her books around our house - and I have read one or two of her books.&nbsp; However, she is a very prolific writer so there will always be plenty more to go, and this was not a book that I had come across before.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Prudence and her sister Grace are home schooled by their overbearing father, but when Prudence starts to rebel against him, he suffers from a stroke.&nbsp; Whilst he recovers in hospital there is no option for Grace and Pru to start at the local secondary school, but for someone who has spent almost her entire life being schooled from home, Pru has a lot of difficulty fitting in, and causes plenty of problems along the way.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Wilson is famous for writing books for children about real issues, and in that regard, all of the books that I have read before by her have done very well.&nbsp; There are believable real characters and no punches are pulled when it comes to talking about the world.&nbsp; However, I found this book to be less real, and at times rather uncomfortable.&nbsp; Prudence herself is not a particularly likable character, and she starts to grate from rather early in the book.&nbsp; You can understand why, but it does not do a lot to improve the readers enjoyment of the book.&nbsp; As the story goes on it becomes morally dubious and I am not sure that it is a book that I would ever recommend.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">As an author, Wilson is still incredible, and I would recommend that you try reading one of her books - maybe&nbsp;<em>Double Trouble</em>&nbsp;or one of the&nbsp;<em>Tracey Beaker&nbsp;</em>books, but I cannot say that this book was one that I particularly enjoyed or would suggest you read.</span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><i>(edit: &nbsp;The thing I didn't really want to go into here with regards to the review appearing on a blog for a year seven class, is that this book goes a bit beyond being 'morally dubious' as I suggest above. &nbsp;The main thread of the story is about the lead character, a teenage schoolgirl, falling for her teacher, and him reciprocating. &nbsp;I tend to believe that there is no problem with promoting some serious issues in books for teenagers, so would applaud this approach by Wilson - indeed something she is well known for doing - if it were not for the fact that she treats this as though it is something perfectly natural, and there are no consequences for anyone as a result of it. &nbsp;I didn't like the insinuations behind this, and as a huge children's author, I actually found it pretty irresponsible&nbsp;of Wilson to suggest that it is the&nbsp;kind of thing that is not a problem. &nbsp;It is treated like no big deal by the end of the book, when in actuality he is&nbsp;predatory&nbsp;and in real life his actions would have had a lasting effect on this girl. I can't believe that someone of Wilson's standing would not make a point of suggesting that anyone in that situation should talk to someone about it rather than thinking it will all be fine.)</i></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">4/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-86557156900231979532014-06-07T12:41:00.002+01:002014-06-07T12:41:33.080+01:00Book 10 - Framed<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aSNnHdCd1JA/U5L58hW42CI/AAAAAAAAAi4/akkue4J-um4/s1600/Cover+-+Framed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aSNnHdCd1JA/U5L58hW42CI/AAAAAAAAAi4/akkue4J-um4/s1600/Cover+-+Framed.jpg" height="200" width="132" /></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span></span><br /><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(note: &nbsp;this is a review taken from the challenge that I undertook with my year seven class in 2013. &nbsp;See&nbsp;<a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/some-links-from-side-project.html">here</a>&nbsp;for my explanation of it)</span></i><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;">Book - Framed</span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Author - Frank Cottrell Boyce</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Year - 2005</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Genre - Adventure</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Pages - 320</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">This book was recommended to me by Brooke, and from the start was one I was looking forward to reading.&nbsp; Boyce is a writer whose books I have been recommended several times, and he has become even more famous in the past year for having written a large part of the opening to the London Summer Olympics in 2012.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><em>Framed</em>&nbsp;tells of a boy called Dylan who lives in a town in North Wales.&nbsp; His quiet life changes when an old mine in the town becomes the place in which incredibly expensive paintings are hidden by London's National Gallery.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">The strongest part of this book is the characterisation.&nbsp; You find as you read it that you fully believe in all of these unusual characters from a little Welsh town.&nbsp; Dylan himself is a great character, and Frank Cottrell Boyce manages to mix together a strong character with traits of naivity and humour in order to make him an incredibly engaging person to read about.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Many of my friends who have recommended reading Boyce's books only started reading his stuff as adults themselves, and in that regard, despite this being a book aimed at children, I certainly believe that it can go beyond that and be read by anyone of any age.&nbsp; I know that I certainly intend to give some of his other work a go.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">8/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-26495516323093634792014-06-07T12:36:00.003+01:002014-06-07T12:36:48.652+01:00Book 9 - Mr Stink<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uF60mFzTOk0/U5L4fzMe_dI/AAAAAAAAAis/uMuF4Ho2LOo/s1600/Cover+-+Mr+Stink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uF60mFzTOk0/U5L4fzMe_dI/AAAAAAAAAis/uMuF4Ho2LOo/s1600/Cover+-+Mr+Stink.jpg" height="200" width="123" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"></span><br /><i>(note: &nbsp;this is a review taken from the challenge that I undertook with my year seven class in 2013. &nbsp;See <a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/some-links-from-side-project.html">here</a> for my explanation of it)</i><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><br /></span>Book – Mr Stink<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Author – David Walliams<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Year – 2009<o:p></o:p></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Genre – Children’s Humour<o:p></o:p></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Pages – 267<o:p></o:p></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, this is the first book that I am reading in this challenge, and it has been recommended to me by Vikki.&nbsp;&nbsp;I know of David Walliams from&nbsp;<i>Little Britain</i>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<i>Britain’s Got Talent</i>, but was quite unconvinced that he would be able to write a quality children’s book.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, as the illustrations come from long-time friend of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, I was willing to give it a try.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Chloe does not have the happiest of lives.&nbsp;&nbsp;Her bossy mother dotes on her sister, but pretty much ignores her, her Dad is powerless to argue against her Mum, and at school she has to deal with bullies making her life a misery.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, she is a good person and takes the time to speak to a local homeless man, christened Mr Stink by the locals because of how he smells.&nbsp;&nbsp;Could he help to change her life around for the better?<o:p></o:p></span></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I admitted that I was worried about how good this book would be when I started to read it.&nbsp;Well I am happy to announce that by the time I had finished it, I loved it!&nbsp;&nbsp;It has all of the same humour that you would find in a Roald Dahl book, with little asides to the reader, and even some graphs.&nbsp;&nbsp;The story is as lovely as it is ridiculous and the illustrations provided by Quentin Blake make it feel like a classic of children’s literature already.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is no denying that this book is aimed at children, and I would be amazed if any child were to read it and not love it (no pressure Vikki) but despite being (a couple of years) older than the target market, I found that I loved it, and for the second half, could not put it down until I had finished it.&nbsp;&nbsp;If you grew up reading the books of Dahl, and loved&nbsp;<i>The BFG</i>,&nbsp;<i>Matilda,</i>and&nbsp;<i>The Twits</i>, then you could do far worse than to give this book a read to be reassured that books of that quality are still being produced.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">9/10</span></div>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-69442222977948549102014-06-07T12:31:00.004+01:002014-06-07T12:31:41.993+01:00Some links from a side project...<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0cEe4UFXNzw/U5L3_nvLHyI/AAAAAAAAAik/i9z9VUMVty4/s1600/Year+Seven+Book+Blog.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0cEe4UFXNzw/U5L3_nvLHyI/AAAAAAAAAik/i9z9VUMVty4/s1600/Year+Seven+Book+Blog.PNG" height="108" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last year I was teaching a fantastic year seven English group. They were pretty able, and many of them really enjoyed reading. One of the main reasons that I wanted to teach English was because I think that young people should read more, and I really wanted to set a little scheme of work that would encourage reading. &nbsp;Surprisingly as an English teacher, there is little scope to push reading for pleasure usually - you are so focussed upon making sure that everyone is reaching their target levels that anything aside from the work at hand is simply superfluous - but I made a bit of a point of trying to produce this and run with it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The concept was simple. &nbsp;In a term, each of them had to read a book and write a review of it. &nbsp;In that time, I would attempt to read each of the books that they were reading and also write a review of each. &nbsp;If they collectively read more than me then I would throw them a party at the end of the year. &nbsp;If I read more than they did collectively, then they would do a handwriting lesson on the last day of term. &nbsp;In silence.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really enjoyed setting this up, and the concept was really well&nbsp;received, especially when - taking a cue&nbsp;from this little challenge here - I told them that I would post all of their blogs online. The problem was that the old levels issue came straight into play, and I didn't really find the time to push this like I would have liked to. &nbsp;As a result, not many of them read their books, and I won the challenge with only about five or six books. &nbsp;I'd love to run another challenge of this kind at some point where the pressure is less on, but I have no idea whatsoever when that might be, if ever. &nbsp;In the meantime, I thought that it would make sense to transfer over some of these reviews to this book blog so that I have all of my books together. &nbsp;Shall make a couple of minor edits (one in particular simply has bits that I want to say about it that I would rather have not put on a blog that all my kids were reading), but aside from that try and keep them similar to how they appeared on the original.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if you are interested to see it, <a href="http://orchardsbookblog.blogspot.co.uk/">this is the blog</a> for them with a few of their reviews. &nbsp;As I say, sadly unfinished, but feel free to check it out!</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-80786508921560887872014-06-07T11:44:00.000+01:002014-06-07T11:44:30.242+01:00Book 8 - Coraline<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QAOx6sm3E5w/U5Ls_JYzXWI/AAAAAAAAAiU/CzSpUZYKKWo/s1600/Cover+-+Coraline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QAOx6sm3E5w/U5Ls_JYzXWI/AAAAAAAAAiU/CzSpUZYKKWo/s1600/Cover+-+Coraline.jpg" height="200" width="129" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Coraline</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Neil Gaiman</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2002</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Dark Children's Fantasy</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 192</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A quick little search shows me that I have never reviewed a book by Neil Gaiman here. &nbsp;As I think through it as well, I realise that I have not really read many of his books overall. &nbsp;<i>Stardust </i>was part of the original challenge before I kept the blog, but thinking about it, the only other Gaiman book I have read is <i>Neverwhere</i>&nbsp;many many years ago. &nbsp;Something to rectify there.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Coraline</i>&nbsp;is probably most famous for its stop motion film adaptation of a few years back. &nbsp;I am not particularly a film person, so it is therefore probably unsurprising that I have not seen that, and would rather read the book first. Well I got round to it, and it was not quite what I was expecting.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following a young girl called Coraline who has moved to a new neighbourhood, this book follows her to another world where everyone she knows is replaced with weird versions of themselves with buttons for eyes. &nbsp;A strange concept for a kids' book, and yes, it really does come across as that odd when you read it! &nbsp;I was surprised at the dark tone of what is a children's book, although the content is not particularly edgy. &nbsp;All in all, a brave move for this kind of fiction, and one that has paid dividends with a&nbsp;critically&nbsp;acclaimed film coming off the back of it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only problem is that it wasn't really that interesting. &nbsp;Maybe my age is to blame - if I'm honest I was reading it more for the Gaiman name than because it is aimed at me - but whilst there was no particular problem with it, I was simply not enthralled by what I was reading, and had it not been so unusually dark, I think it may have been something that I would not really remember even this short time after reading it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-50720512872365206742014-06-07T11:15:00.001+01:002014-06-07T11:15:38.211+01:00Book 7 - Ultimate Avengers 2: Crime and Punishment<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qiwf0y8LtRA/U5LmK2UUOVI/AAAAAAAAAiE/qXgHe5c9V7o/s1600/Cover+-+Ultimate+Avengers+2+Crime+and+Punishment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qiwf0y8LtRA/U5LmK2UUOVI/AAAAAAAAAiE/qXgHe5c9V7o/s1600/Cover+-+Ultimate+Avengers+2+Crime+and+Punishment.jpg" height="200" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Ultimate Avengers 2: Crime and Punishment</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Authors - Mark Millar and Lenil Francis Yu</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Date - 2010</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Graphic Novel</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 148</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lent to me by Chris Allum</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starting to work with Chris and discovering his massive love of superhero comics, along with his rather impressive collection, has meant that he has very kindly lent me some of his favourites. &nbsp;Trying to enter the universes of Marvel is a tricky one, and having read the first <a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/book-6-essential-classic-x-men-volume-1.html">X-Men comics</a> and also the <i>Avengers Disassembled </i>graphic novel (I really need to get back on track of writing these in order!) Chris lent me one of his favourites - <i>Crime and Punishment</i>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is particularly interesting about this version of the Avengers, is just how dark they are. &nbsp;Without reading everything is perfect order (a genuinely nigh on impossible task) I don't follow exactly where we are in the overall storyline of things, but this iteration includes the Hulk's mentor who is a gangster, a rude Hawkeye who is nothing like the films, an evil version of Spiderman, and as their feature attraction, the mass-murdering Punisher. &nbsp;It's a far cry from the MCU films we have all seen of late, but it really whets the&nbsp;appetite. &nbsp;There is such a dense amount of storylining to everything that Marvel have produced, that the possibilities for the films are endless.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In terms of story, this is good (focussing on the backstory of Ghost Rider) if not a stone cold classic. &nbsp;What makes it a really good read is understanding some of these characters a little better - particularly for a relative newcomer such as myself. &nbsp;I found myself wanting to get to know more about some of the characters who are on the&nbsp;periphery of the story (Nerd Hulk. &nbsp;There is a character called Nerd Hulk. &nbsp;And yes, those two words sum him up perfectly).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Universe reading such as with Marvel, and presumably DC as well (don't worry, Becky and James got me <i>The Killing Joke</i>&nbsp;for my birthday, so I shall be visiting there as well) can really hook you in, and I am very much looking forward to falling deeper down the rabbit hole.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/10 &nbsp;</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-57304239707287177642014-05-27T12:06:00.003+01:002014-05-27T12:06:46.159+01:00Book 6 - Essential Classic X-Men Volume 1<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--eoUWq6xwC8/U4RxkuBgCaI/AAAAAAAAAhk/ynyAzdDDI4o/s1600/Cover+-+Essential+Classic+X-Men+Volume+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--eoUWq6xwC8/U4RxkuBgCaI/AAAAAAAAAhk/ynyAzdDDI4o/s1600/Cover+-+Essential+Classic+X-Men+Volume+1.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Essential Classic X-Men Volume 1</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Authors - Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and various others</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Date - 2010</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Comic</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 528</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first foray here into comic books! &nbsp;And before anyone even suggests that the term "graphic novel" is used instead, no, this particular book is very definitely a comic book. &nbsp;In fact, it is several comic books. &nbsp;Marvel have published a range called "Essential" which gathers black and white versions of the first comics in many of its iconic series - Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man, and of course, the X-Men.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This book covers the first twenty-four issues of the X-Men comic published back in the sixties, when the team consisted of Professor X, Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl (an early iteration of Jean Grey). &nbsp;Some of the X-Men's biggest foes are introduced - Magneto and Juggernaut to name but two - and the concept of this mutant team is truly set up.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is really interesting to read these early comics. &nbsp;I have always been a bit of a fan of superheroes. &nbsp;Everything from the origin stories to the flashy costumes appeals to me, but the convoluted nature of the Marvel and DC universes makes it pretty difficult to get involved properly in reading the comics themselves. &nbsp;This is why the concept of the Essential series appealed to me. &nbsp;Start at the beginning and work your way through.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are a couple of problems with this - the first being that the crossovers between franchises becomes so ridiculously convoluted that you would need to buy a truly ridiculous amount of these books to cover everything and remain spoiler free (something dear to my heart). &nbsp;The second being that the early comics simply are not as exciting as the kind of thing that are produced nowadays. &nbsp;The action and adventure seen in the current run of Marvel comics is such that you always feel a sense of peril. &nbsp;The characters - largely through their journey onto the big screen - are so understood and developed that it is possible for writers to do a lot with them. &nbsp;These comics feel like a grounding that doesn't have this kind of depth, and so whilst an amusing and interesting read, they don't hold the attention in the way that I had hoped. &nbsp;Testament to this is the fact that I devoured this very quickly (an embarrassingly long time ago - I don't know why I stopped reviewing!) but then abandoned the second volume midway through. &nbsp;It became a little monotonous.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still, it is not a terrible gateway, and I have since started to read some of the more modern books in the Marvel universe. &nbsp;I am sure that I will come back and finish off the second volume, and then keep reading. &nbsp;If for no other reason than a series of them will look great on my bookshelf.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-74807669581410459082014-05-27T11:19:00.002+01:002014-05-27T11:19:19.697+01:00Book 5 - Skellig<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Skellig<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gpz47gNpBp4/U4RmhVfrFRI/AAAAAAAAAhM/zscuFoIOv-M/s1600/Cover+-+Skellig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gpz47gNpBp4/U4RmhVfrFRI/AAAAAAAAAhM/zscuFoIOv-M/s1600/Cover+-+Skellig.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></div></span><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - David Almond</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 1998</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Children's Fantasy</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 170</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this is one of those books that I read for school. &nbsp;The things I do for work. &nbsp;A fair warning, there will be some spoilery bits in here, because I don't care to recommend this one to you very much.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skellig tells the story of Michael, a boy whose life has been changed by a move of house, and a brand new baby sister in his life. &nbsp;When he is feeling at his lowest he meets a kooky girl next door called Mina, and an angel called Skellig who lives in his garage, eats woodlice, Chinese food and beer, and can make people fly.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sounds like an interesting concept, doesn't it? &nbsp;Well, unfortunately it isn't. &nbsp;I only read this book after I had already decided to start teaching it at school, and I immediately regretted the decision. &nbsp;It meant spending most of my week discussing this dull, tepid, slow book with students in my classes. &nbsp;To their credit, some of them seemed to take a fair bit from the book, so maybe it my advancing age that caused the problem here. &nbsp;But simply speaking, this blog is about what I think of books, and alas, I didn't think much of this. &nbsp;Not even enough to really give it a more satisfactory review than this.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3/10</span></div>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-12705911744244091552014-05-27T11:10:00.001+01:002014-05-27T11:10:07.894+01:00Book 4 - Undisputed<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3tCEiUtFOjk/U4RkPJu6GFI/AAAAAAAAAhA/ZJj9T9fqxAg/s1600/Cover+-+Undisputed+Chris+Jericho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3tCEiUtFOjk/U4RkPJu6GFI/AAAAAAAAAhA/ZJj9T9fqxAg/s1600/Cover+-+Undisputed+Chris+Jericho.jpg" height="200" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Undisputed: How to Become World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Chris Jericho</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2011</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Autobiography</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 448</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bought for me by Robert Hyde</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I have a bit of catching up to do now. &nbsp;And to confess, I am not going to do the next few in order. &nbsp;They will simply be books that I have read recently and haven't yet blogged. &nbsp;Well, okay, some of them will be books I read a little while back but simply hadn't blogged.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And first to here, the second autobiography of the wrestler Chris Jericho. &nbsp;Picking up where the <a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/book-1-lions-tale.html">first book</a> left off, with Jericho's debut in the WWE, a big difference here is that the contents of this book are primarily about a period of his life that I know considerably better than in the first book which largely&nbsp;chronicled his exploits in Mexico, Japan and WCW. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it is incredibly interesting. &nbsp;Jericho is one of the all time greats, and known for bis inventiveness of character as well as his in-ring skill, and this comes across in the book. &nbsp;His insights are generally pretty funny, and when talking about Chris Benoit - his real life best friend and World Champion who became a double murderer before killing himself - a completely different side comes across which is both brave and touching. &nbsp;You can see his wild sense of humour, juxtaposed alongside a mixture of pain at losing someone he was close to, and distress at what he became. &nbsp;For a book about as frivolous an idea as professional wrestling, this is an incredible tone to set.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In almost every way this is a superior book to his first autobiography. &nbsp;Unfortunately, the big downside is the sheer amount of time Jericho spends talking about his band, Fozzy. &nbsp;I understand that it is a huge part of his life, but personally I am a fan of wrestling not metal, so these chapters tend to drag a lot.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which makes it a pity that he is currently spending considerably more time touring with the band than in the ring, as his third autobiography is due out later on this year. &nbsp;I will of course buy it, and probably enjoy it a lot, but I am not particularly looking forward to wading through the latest updates on the metal scene.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/10</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-32199120265650731112014-05-18T17:15:00.000+01:002014-05-18T17:15:02.407+01:00The Nemesis is back...<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ImJY90E2INM/U3jcbl9deqI/AAAAAAAAAgg/PoYlZy1kkIM/s1600/Bob+the+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ImJY90E2INM/U3jcbl9deqI/AAAAAAAAAgg/PoYlZy1kkIM/s1600/Bob+the+book.jpg" height="197" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today has been a hot day, and one where I have received numerous snapchats and messages of friends in the sun, usually with a summer themed alcoholic beverage in hand. &nbsp;And what have I been doing? &nbsp;Well, the same thing I do most of my weekends, marking.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have done little to hide on here that my two big loves are books and theatre. &nbsp;The first of those was what inspired me to become an English teacher, and the second is what has inspired me to now move departments and take over Drama. &nbsp;Due to a long series of events, the upshot is that I am guiding in three GCSE classes in three different subjects to port at the moment, and the workload has been pretty horrendous. &nbsp;Today should be my last big day of doing a tonne of work, but upon having a few minutes break with a cup of tea (remember, from in my living room, this summer weather does not exist) I happened to notice that my nemesis had returned.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bob is back. &nbsp;In fact, he has been back for a fair few months, but I had only just noticed (aside from a slightly hazy recollection of him mentioning it whilst mildly inebriated, which had eluded me until his post). &nbsp;And so far, not many reviews, but instead a heap of blogs all about books and book related things. &nbsp;Well, despite my looming deadline, and desire to finish work so I could drink cider in the sun, I instead just spent half an hour reading what he had to say.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I have found myself jealous. &nbsp;Bob is writing some great stuff about books again (as my nemesis, it pains me to say it, but even his stuff about sports books - of which I am not a particular fan - enticed me to click on the links he had supplied) and seems to be enjoying his blog. &nbsp;And I appear incapable of getting back on the horse at the moment. &nbsp;Bob's observation that sometimes the reviews seem to get in the way of the reading is quite true, except for me at the moment, it seems to be everything getting in the way of the reading.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd like this to be another "Right! &nbsp;Now I am doing it properly and getting back blogging!", but have done a few of them in the past. &nbsp;So instead, I am going to say "Right! &nbsp;I enjoyed writing this blog, and not marking for a few more minutes. &nbsp;I shall have to do so again sometime!" and be happy by it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And of course, this blog writing is nothing to do with a competitive nature coming back to the fore...</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://100books2010.blogspot.co.uk/">Read Bob's blog her</a><a href="http://100books2010.blogspot.co.uk/">e</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S The boxing book called Bob just happened to pop up on a google search for a suitable picture, and seemed so appropriate, I had to use it! &nbsp;Sorry if you are the Boxing Book Bob creator.</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-19926507235911825062014-01-15T23:36:00.002+00:002014-01-15T23:36:51.923+00:00Book 3 - Pigeon English<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8yPVDAexJxM/UtcbetPHzXI/AAAAAAAAAfc/P2QQPNIgdwc/s1600/Cover+-+Pigeon+English.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8yPVDAexJxM/UtcbetPHzXI/AAAAAAAAAfc/P2QQPNIgdwc/s1600/Cover+-+Pigeon+English.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Pigeon English</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Stephen Kelman</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ye</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ar - 2011</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Fiction</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 263</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bought for me by Alex Campbell</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For whatever reason, I hold the Man Booker prize in high esteem. &nbsp;I have read a few of the winners before (see <i><a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.com/2011/08/book-33-sea.html">The Sea</a></i>&nbsp;and <i><a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/book-4-vernon-god-little.html">Vernon God Little</a> </i>for those I have read and reviewed on this blog) and have bought many more that are currently in my colossal "To Read" pile, but in general I tend to see the Man Booker as an endorsement that this is going to be a well written book and worth my time.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pigeon English</i>&nbsp;is not a winner, but was nominated a couple of years back. &nbsp;Alex bought it for me as it is written from the point of view of a Year Seven student - and as a lot of my time seems to be taken up with the dealings of Year Sevens (yes, when you deal with them as I do, Year Seven deserves capitalisation) it may be an interesting read.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it really is. &nbsp;It follows Harri, a Ghanaian boy who has come to England with half of his family whilst his father stays behind with his grandmother and baby sister until they can raise the money to fly over. &nbsp;At its heart, it is a book about an impressionable boy trying to fit into a rough neighbourhood that is shaken by the fatal stabbing of a local teenager. &nbsp;Heavily influenced by the case of Damilola Taylor, it gives a true feeling of the London of now, and whilst far heavier than anything I deal with on a day to day basis at school, feels very real in its approach to everyday issues.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real star of the book is Harri - or more specifically the way that he talks. &nbsp;Written in first person, Kelman does not hold back in mixing his Ghanaian slang with some of the new London slang he encounters. &nbsp;This only goes to heighten the fantastic voice that the character finds. Terribly naive and gullible, he misuses words and switches topics in a way that I often chastise the Year Sevens in my classes for doing whilst building on a structure that is unmistakably an eleven year old's. &nbsp;Far from being maddening, it really does develop a fantastic characterisation that again lends a certain amount of credibility to the story. &nbsp;Whilst unspectacular, it still makes it a book worth reading just for that.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My sole issue with the book is&nbsp;unfortunately&nbsp;a relatively large one. &nbsp;Despite a wonderful build with some excellent supporting cast being introduced, the ending feels rushed. &nbsp;Having stretched out some powerfully tense moments, I wanted a more suitable conclusion to wrap it all up. &nbsp;It may have been the writer's intention to finish how he did, but personally I was disappointed. &nbsp;This has knocked it a few marks, but despite that I already know that it is a book that I am incredibly pleased to have read, with a style that I think I will remember for a long time. &nbsp;This is Kelman's first novel, so I shall definitely be keeping an eye out to see how he can follow it up - hopefully with the same writing flair, but just a slightly better finish.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-28167587853089903772014-01-13T00:17:00.002+00:002014-01-13T00:17:39.407+00:00Book 2 - Blood Brothers<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0AhLcPBAkJ8/UtMwdiCCXdI/AAAAAAAAAfM/sGIIQ5aVZLU/s1600/Cover+-+Blood+Brothers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0AhLcPBAkJ8/UtMwdiCCXdI/AAAAAAAAAfM/sGIIQ5aVZLU/s1600/Cover+-+Blood+Brothers.jpg" height="200" width="128" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Blood Brothers</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Willy Russell</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 1986</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Play</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 100</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is an example of a book that I have had to read for my job. &nbsp;<i>Blood Brothers</i>&nbsp;has been one of the longest running shows in the West End, but one that I have never had too much interest in seeing. &nbsp;There is no particular reason for this, it simply hasn't appealed to me, and as a result, I was not particularly interested in reading this play.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Set in 1970s Liverpool, it follows a set of twins, one of whom is given up for adoption by their mother Mrs Johnstone to a local family of considerably greater wealth than she has. &nbsp;Their lives run very differently, and the play aims to show how being brought up with some money puts your life on a very different footing. &nbsp;It is absolutely cram packed with all of the themes and ideas that make it a text to really study in school - possibly an aim considering it started its life as a piece of Theatre In Education (TIE).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is sometimes off-putting in a story - if you jam a theme and message down a reader's throat then it sometimes loses its charm - but to my surprise, I found absolutely none of that here. &nbsp;What follows is a beautifully told story with some incredibly interesting characters, and despite what could seem at times to be a damagingly close brush with cliche, it is actually very moving. &nbsp;Seeing the less well off twin, Mickey, struggle with the lot that life has dealt him, despite starting as a down to earth and likable character, connects him with the reader that makes the inevitability of his downfall quite heart rending. &nbsp;Likewise, you can prophesise the</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">doom of his brother Eddie, despite him coming off as a fantastic person. &nbsp;The fact that the play starts by telling you the ending lends a sense of foreboding throughout that makes everything that occurs considerably more poignant.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The production is currently touring, and it pains me that I had not realised just how good a show this is before it visited my local theatre back before Christmas, but I shall make pains to go and see it when it next comes around, and in the meantime shall look forward to analysing it with my classes this year.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-27271451522599104732014-01-04T00:26:00.000+00:002014-01-04T00:26:16.631+00:00Book 1 - A Lion's Tale<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b-c2P7O1VLA/UsbIpKGqvzI/AAAAAAAAAe8/Xyvh4vquaD0/s1600/Cover+-+A+Lions+Tale+Chris+Jericho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b-c2P7O1VLA/UsbIpKGqvzI/AAAAAAAAAe8/Xyvh4vquaD0/s200/Cover+-+A+Lions+Tale+Chris+Jericho.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Chris Jericho</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2007</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Autobiography</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 412</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bought for me by Robert Hyde</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starting this year off with a book that very few of you may be interested in, but I am, so ner! &nbsp;I haven't hidden here my love of wrestling, and for me Chris Jericho is one of the greats. &nbsp;Rob very kindly bought me both of his autobiographies (so far, there is a third on the way), and I thought that starting the year with something I am really in to would be a suitable idea.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This first autobiography covers Jericho's life from his early years growing up in Winnipeg, through to the moments standing backstage waiting to make his debut for the WWE (or WWF as it then was). &nbsp;In that time he covers his training, his time spent in Mexico and in Japan, and the terrible days of the poorly run WCW (wonderfully covered in the book <i><a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/book-49-death-of-wcw.html">The Death of WCW</a></i>).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had been told by many that this is one of the best wrestling autobiographies around. &nbsp;Whilst I can't deny that it is incredibly enjoyable, it doesn't quite hold up to the very best around such as Mick Foley's first, and <a href="http://thebookchallenge2010.blogspot.com/2010/09/book-61-hitman.html">Bret Hart's <i>Hitman</i></a>. &nbsp;Maybe it is because the stuff I know Jericho most for - his time in WWE - was saved for the follow up book, or maybe that despite being one of the funniest on air performers in wrestling, the humour in the book often fell a little flat. &nbsp;Whatever it was, it took it down just a notch.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not to take a lot away from the book though which is warm and funny, and doesn't pull punches like some autobiographies do. &nbsp;Notably, Jericho makes the bold move not to change any of the information about Christ Benoit in the book. &nbsp;Benoit made the news, even over here, a few years back when he killed his family and then himself. &nbsp;Research showed that through in ring trauma and an&nbsp;over reliance&nbsp;on steroids, his brain was pretty much destroyed, but since then his name is very rarely mentioned by WWE. &nbsp;Benoit was one of Jericho's closest friends, and these events took place after the book was written, but before it was published. &nbsp;Jericho makes mention at the beginning how he decided to keep Benoit in as the man he knew, and not the person he became in the last few hours of his life. &nbsp;A bold and potentially controversial view, but one that pays off throughout the book.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-52559271631318503432014-01-03T12:23:00.001+00:002014-01-03T12:23:18.037+00:00Back to books...<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vcA-s5ixOIo/UsarntT1BhI/AAAAAAAAAes/vqXho4IQ3iY/s1600/Intro+to+2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vcA-s5ixOIo/UsarntT1BhI/AAAAAAAAAes/vqXho4IQ3iY/s200/Intro+to+2014.jpg" width="166" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I cannot believe that it has been four years since I first started The Book Challenge blog. &nbsp;A lot&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">has changed in that time. &nbsp;Books went from being my hobby to being my job - I now work as&nbsp;an English teacher - and as a strange result, I have stopped reading anywhere near as much as I used to. &nbsp;No you're right, that doesn't make sense, but it's the way it is!</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess it makes a little more sense when you consider just how tough doing teacher training is, and just how much of my life it took up. &nbsp;The blogs get thinner and thinner as my training picks up, and consists almost exclusively of books that I had read for school purposes. &nbsp;My quite shocking reading total for 2013 appears to be one. &nbsp;Whilst this doesn't reflect exactly how many books I read, it says a lot about how much spare time I had that my blogging - something I have enjoyed thoroughly over the past few years - dropped off considerably. &nbsp;It didn't disappear - I set up a blog with one of my classes at school and reviewed some books there - but that's a story for another day.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because today I restart. &nbsp;My NQT year (also known as "The hardest year of your career". &nbsp;I concur.) is in full flight. &nbsp;I still have almost no time to myself. &nbsp;But I can't be the kind of English teacher who doesn't read, and my to be read pile is genuinely obscene (you would actually laugh at how many books I am waiting to read at the moment). &nbsp;So no target this year. &nbsp;No level to reach. &nbsp;No specific books that I am going to make sure I read to look more "well read". &nbsp;And no shame if I only read kids books and wrestling autobiographies. &nbsp;I want to get back to reading because I love it, and blogging because I enjoy it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please keep reading and commenting. &nbsp;I would write this even if I thought that not a person ever read it, but hearing comments from you all truly makes this the special little thing that it is, so please do let me know what you think about the blogs, or far more importantly, what you think about any of the books that I have read.</span></div>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-10524425080025358182013-04-04T17:26:00.002+01:002013-04-04T17:26:35.089+01:00Book 1 - The 100 Most Pointless Things In The World<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - The 100 Most Pointless Things In The World</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-II8q7F8_iB4/UV2pp15_E9I/AAAAAAAAAdU/b42-CanFBw0/s1600/Cover+-+The+100+Most+Pointless+Things+In+The+World.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-II8q7F8_iB4/UV2pp15_E9I/AAAAAAAAAdU/b42-CanFBw0/s200/Cover+-+The+100+Most+Pointless+Things+In+The+World.jpg" width="129" /></a></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Authors - Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2012</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Fact</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 320</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The stresses and strains of becoming a teacher have held me back this year on two fronts - reading books, and updating my blog on books that I have read. &nbsp;Every inch of me wants to rectify them both, but I have a lot of work to do, and so only the one that is going to take a little less time is the one that I can sort out now. &nbsp;If you cannot guess which one this is, then sit back and take a moment to think about what you are reading at the moment.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I have gotten through a few books so far this year, but I cannot say that they are literary classics. &nbsp;Which is of course not to say that they aren't very good. &nbsp;Take for instance, this book, based upon the truly amazing TV show <i>Pointless. </i>&nbsp;It is a bit of a mini obsession of mine of late, and this is a great book by its stars, Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman. &nbsp;Presented as a book along the 'grumpy old men' line - the 100 most pointless things that they can think of - it is not entirely based upon the premise of the game show. &nbsp;However, entwined in this are little bursts of <i>Pointless</i>&nbsp;style questioning - who wrote these poems, or presented these series - which means that you can play along.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Armstrong has always been funny on TV whenever he has been in anything, but Osman is a bit of a revelation. &nbsp;I genuinely laughed out loud repeatedly throughout the book. &nbsp;If you haven't yet sampled the delights of <i>Pointless</i>, then get yourself on iPlayer, and then grab a copy of this informative, funny and excellent book.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9/10</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-28691756154533971512012-12-28T21:30:00.002+00:002012-12-28T21:30:36.459+00:00Book 43 - Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iisMNpPHuAU/UN4PY9xvUuI/AAAAAAAAAdE/zrOrQRG3PDI/s1600/Cover+-+Artemis+Fowl+The+Arctic+Incident.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iisMNpPHuAU/UN4PY9xvUuI/AAAAAAAAAdE/zrOrQRG3PDI/s200/Cover+-+Artemis+Fowl+The+Arctic+Incident.JPG" width="130" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Eoin Colfer</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2001</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Fantasy</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 288</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Series - Artemis Fowl</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last of the books in this little flurry of reviews that I have put up today is the follow up to the previous book. &nbsp;I usually try not to read two books in the same series one after another - I like to mix things up a little - but I was pretty excited to get a start on the second one here, and decided that as I have failed on this front several times in the past, it couldn't hurt to do so once more.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The same characters are there - Fowl, Holly, Root and Fowl's butler, Butler (this seemingly&nbsp;unimaginative coincidence is explained nicely in the book, but you can read it to find out), but this time they are working together in a compound plot that involves the rescue of Artemis' presumed dead father from the Arctic, and a goblin rebellion below the ground. &nbsp;I have read somewhere that Colfer describes his <i>Artemis Fowl </i>series as "Die Hard with fairies" and this is a concept that I can get behind entirely. &nbsp;There is a sense of action that is interspersed with both fantasy and humour that makes this series incredibly readable. &nbsp;I mentioned in the last review about how there will always be parallels between any fantasy book with a young male protagonist, and <i>Harry Potter</i>. &nbsp;I probably should have mentioned however, just how different these books are, whilst&nbsp;simultaneously&nbsp;being exactly the right kind of thing for each other's markets.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best thing is that this is a series of eight books, so I still have another six to look forward to. Shall start gathering together my Christmas pennies...</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-69972413975299232862012-12-28T21:02:00.000+00:002012-12-28T21:02:52.366+00:00Book 42 - Artemis Fowl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kg5jtKV7YPs/UN4IilBfhrI/AAAAAAAAAc0/Fw10IaDvTAw/s1600/Cover+-+Artemis+Fowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kg5jtKV7YPs/UN4IilBfhrI/AAAAAAAAAc0/Fw10IaDvTAw/s200/Cover+-+Artemis+Fowl.jpg" width="129" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Artemis Fowl</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Eoin Colfer</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2001</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Fantasy</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 277</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Series - Artemis Fowl</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember my Mum suggesting this book to me years and years ago when I was pining for a new <i>Harry Potter </i>book. &nbsp;As a fantasy series based around a young boy, there would always be comparisons made, but this series has a twist - instead of being a young hero, the eponymous Artemis is a young criminal.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis is a great character. &nbsp;He is immensely intelligent, incredibly wealthy and manages to combine enough bad qualities to make him look a criminal, but enough good qualities to keep him squarely as the main character of the book. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This first outing sees him attempt to infiltrate the world of fairies to make himself more money, and introduces the fairy characters of Holly Short and Commander Root - also brilliantly written characters. &nbsp;You would think from my description that it is a purely character led book, but the plot is brilliant as well. &nbsp;I won't claim that it has the twists and turns of a literary classic, but it is engrossing throughout, and not just to the children's/young adult's audience that it is nominally aimed at, but even to me as a (slightly) older reader.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I always like starting a new fantasy series, and this is a great one to have gotten going on. &nbsp;I only wish that I had made the plunge many years ago when my Mum suggested it to me.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-65306253242315084762012-12-28T20:07:00.001+00:002012-12-28T20:07:23.385+00:00Book 41 - Cirque du Freak<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n9xV3hdJVsU/UN374LIXm9I/AAAAAAAAAck/eIia-iwXe28/s1600/Cover+-+Cirque+du+Freak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n9xV3hdJVsU/UN374LIXm9I/AAAAAAAAAck/eIia-iwXe28/s200/Cover+-+Cirque+du+Freak.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Cirque du Freak</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Darren Shan</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2000</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Children's Fantasy</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 192</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another book that came about due to it being covered at school (prepare yourself for plenty of these over the next, I don't know, forty years). &nbsp;This is the first in a series about the young Darren who visits a freak show with his friend Steve. &nbsp;Darren is a huge fan of spiders and is drawn to the strange spider act in the show. &nbsp;I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone - I try pretty hard not to in these blogs - and it is pretty tough, as this entire book is pretty much a set up for the series of nine books, but a cursory look at the titles of them should tell you that this is a vampire series.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vampires are not really my thing. &nbsp;I am not a fan of gothic fiction particularly, and even when looking at modern books about vampires, there is a tendency to stray towards that kind of a feel. &nbsp;It is difficult to explain why I have difficulty summoning up much enthusiasm about such a specific branch - I have no problem with most other fantastical creature types - but it simply remains a fact that they are not my cup of tea. &nbsp;I tend to be able to appreciate them however, and books like <i>Fevre Dream</i>&nbsp;I have found very good (not <i>Twilight </i>though. &nbsp;Never <i>Twilight</i>.)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I feel happy enough to say that this is a good book. &nbsp;It is accessible to younger readers, but the subject is mature enough for teens as well. &nbsp;I have a feeling that the story will build very nicely, and the characters are set well in this first book. &nbsp;However, I didn't particularly enjoy it myself. &nbsp;As it is well written, I didn't hate it, but I just cannot summon up that love for this kind of thing to enjoy myself enough.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6/10</span></div>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-4027007980212748052012-12-28T19:36:00.003+00:002012-12-28T19:36:46.636+00:00Book 40 - Holes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qplnFUznWPg/UN30uaGznMI/AAAAAAAAAcU/Q4MMHS1FuWg/s1600/Cover+-+Holes.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qplnFUznWPg/UN30uaGznMI/AAAAAAAAAcU/Q4MMHS1FuWg/s200/Cover+-+Holes.jpeg" width="128" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Holes</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Louis Sachar</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 1998</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Children's</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 241</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those of you who don't know, this September I started a new job. &nbsp;I am now training to become an English teacher. &nbsp;All these years of reading plenty of books has paid off. &nbsp;There is a certain irony to the fact that I now have such little time to read for pleasure nowadays when it is something that I try and persuade teenagers to do, but the one thing I do need to do is read the books that I will be teaching to students. &nbsp;Whilst this means that I may have a little less choice in the matter of what I am reading at the moment, there is no reason to not include any of these books that I read here on the Book Challenge, is there? &nbsp;Oh yes, I make the rules up don't I? &nbsp;Well, review them I shall then.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I actually read <i>Holes</i>&nbsp;during the first Book Challenge in 2009 (the one that I failed at so miserably) and quite liked it. &nbsp;It is a story about Stanley Yelnats (see if you can find the literary trick in the name... sorry, teacher mode there) who is sent to a camp for young offenders for stealing a pair of sneakers. &nbsp;It transpires that this is not a normal camp, but instead the campers are forced to dig a five foot hole each day. &nbsp;Stanley suspects that something is up - and of course for the sake of plot, there is.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a cracking book for kids with some great characters, a lovely series of chapters that intersperse the current day with the same place a hundred or so years before, and is also a great book to teach - I managed to put together some great lessons for my Year Sevens based on this one, and imagine I will probably teach it again in the future.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/10</span>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850059061714242634.post-72574536849486344282012-12-28T19:23:00.001+00:002012-12-28T19:23:21.820+00:00Book 39 - Freedom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E9Z7zHSLe50/UN3xmfVIdWI/AAAAAAAAAcE/4VbKP7MRxb4/s1600/Cover+-+Freedom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E9Z7zHSLe50/UN3xmfVIdWI/AAAAAAAAAcE/4VbKP7MRxb4/s200/Cover+-+Freedom.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book - Freedom</span><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author - Jonathan Franzen</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Year - 2011</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Genre - Fiction</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pages - 570</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lent to me by Angharad Rees</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a bit of a reading block, I was lent <i>Freedom </i>by Angharad this summer with the highest recommendation. &nbsp;I was feeling pretty frazzled from a lot of reading, so was a little reluctant at the time, but with a full free day ahead of me, I decided to give it a shot.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is the kind of book that I find tough to categorise in terms of genre. &nbsp;Set in a roughly contemporary time, and following the lives of a family as they branch out in different directions, the best overall theme I can give it is 'Fiction'. &nbsp;To give you a little more, we find out in the opening that Walter Berglund has been involved in some kind of a scandal. &nbsp;We don't know what, but it has made the front page of the <i>New York Times</i>. &nbsp;What follows is the lives of Walter and his family, with all of the mistakes that they make, and the relationships that follow. &nbsp;The book is written in several different forms, including a self help autobiography from Walter's wife Patty, alongside traditional narrative, and looks at not just this pair, but also their young Republican son, a washed up rocker, and revelations throughout.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is nothing startlingly new or different about any of it, but it really doesn't matter when the book is as engaging and entertaining as this one is. &nbsp;I think I managed to make my way through the whole 570 pages in a little over twenty four hours, which says something about how absorbing it is. &nbsp;Most of my reading tends toward more specific genres - be it fantasy, autobiography, language etc - so this is not the kind of thing I would often read, but I am glad I did as it is an incredibly good read, and worth picking up if you have a spare day to read (or week if you don't read as fast as a freak like me).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10/10</span></div>zalxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690107232132122228noreply@blogger.com0